Arrest of Puigdemont and death of Anna Campbell highlights hypocrisy at the heart of UK politics.

The reaction to the arrest of exiled Catalan president Carlos Puigdemont and the death of International volunteer Anna Campbell in Northern Syria prove the rank hypocrisy at the heart of UK politics.

While the Conservatives desperately grasped at the Salisbury poisoning, moving quickly to blame Russian agents, then hastily deporting nearly two dozen diplomats and their families in an effort to look powerful and decisive. The move came after being utterly ridiculed in recent months during Brexit negotiations. Their actions are in stark contrast to their silence over the ongoing oppression of Catalan political leaders and in their facilitation of the deal to sell Turkey the fighter jets that murdered international volunteer Anna Campbell.

We hope the SNP will not meekly follow a conservative line on these issues as they have done after the fall out of the Salisbury poisoning. All efforts must be made by the devolved Government and SNP MP’s to ensure the protection of those who are politically targeted by Rajoy’s oppressive Spanish state and to an end of sale of military equipment that murder the brave volunteers in the Syrian Democratic Forces, who are defending the hard won vision of an equal and secular society.

Pro Independence socialists in Scotland must now call on the Government to refuse to facilitate any attempts to extradite any Catalan political figures such as Clara Ponsati currently the director of the school of economics and finance at St Andrews University, Further demands must be made to force an immediate end to the sale of fighter jets and arms to Turkey, a NATO “ally” currently engaged in the murder and destabilisation of the Afrin Canton in the Autonomous region of Northern Syria (Rojava).

The actions of both the Spanish and Turkish governments must be utterly condemned.

International solidarity and support to the people of Catalonia and Rojava.